Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

Chapter 722

The moment my blade leaves my storage, I feel the core within it instantly sync with my own.

Excess threads from the atmosphere fall in all around me, filling my body with a surge of power and extreme pain at the same time.

I feel my entire being exposed to the merciless pressure of the Upper Realm in all of its glory.

My flesh continually deteriorates and heals, and even my Soul Sword breaks apart with millions of fractures the second it's exposed to the open air.

It too adapts and heals as I airstep forward using mana, divine energy, and ether to power my footsteps.

In the last few battles, I've tested out my limits and found I'm able to withstand the pressure for a few seconds at a time; and this is all I really need for the monsters before me.

My All-Seeing Eye pulses outward, getting me a perfect view of the entire mountain; and my Foresight instantly replays the thousands of best options I can take before me.

With Ava's mana signature rising to large degrees, zig-zagging in front of me trailing with green light, I activate one of my newest skills, [Shadow Step], paired with the divine flames that are magnified to their greatest strength with my Soul Sword, and lock onto all the targets directly in my line of sight.

I grin and feel shifting transport points all over the flat portion of the mountainside we're on.

They move around based on where the light source above us blacks out the ground beside the Demonic Orcs and Cyclops.

Memories of Drako Vermillion using this technique during his decades of training on the Demons' world fill my subconscious senses, and the pairing divine skill with my divine core creates a unique ability; allowing me to seemingly disappear from everyone's senses, and reappear less than 5 meters away from the closest Demonic Cyclops that holds its dual axes high in the air, trying to intimidate me from afar.

It doesn't even realize I've come into its striking range, yet my Soul Sword erupts with red flames with white ether being channeled through their core, and it cleaves the Demonic Beast's avatar in half, shattering its cores.

The natural aura of intimidation that erupts from my being makes all of the guardians on this mountain, even hundreds of kilometers away, turn their heads even without having the system tell them an intruder is near.

The automatic ether defenses on this 2nd Class Cyclops' High Grade Avatar fully activate, but my power is too overwhelming. Notifications ring in my ear, notifying me of its death while I use the small time I have remaining with my barrier up to teleport through the shadows to the Demonic Orc less than 100 meters away.

In a single slash, the Orc's avatar is sliced in two as well.

Shockwaves of condensed mental ether permeate through my hands that both grip my blade, and as the monster's physical form is being shattered, so does its mind.

I disappear, and reappear another 80 meters away to shove my flaming blade into another Demonic Beast's back, instantly killing another Cyclops and melting its mind.

From the outside looking in, when I saw this shadowstep technique being used, I always assumed it was similar to luminite transport crystals, or an instant position swap technique like Dungeon Walker or the Body Double perk.

However, it's actually a high-speed movement technique combined with a strange stealth ability similar to Raven's invisible pocket dimension.

I can only transport into areas that are visible to my eyes, and those areas must be in the absence of light.

My entire being enters a strange stealth-like state, within my own shadow, and allows me to move far faster than usual; however, I'm unable to interact with the physical realm while using this movement technique. Though, it is quite instant, similar to the speed of a dungeon walk.

With full use of my body and powers, this new technique will be unstoppable...

However, after this third kill, far too many threads have been absorbed through my body and sword, and with the influx of three full divine cores and new ether, I'm forced to put my barrier back up and brace for the impact of notifications, memories, and my body tearing itself to pieces and growing back.

–

I do so, and the outside world goes blank for about two seconds.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

[Level Up] x875

[Level Up] x642

[Level Up] x397

[Use Absorption]

Skill: Body Hardening

Upgrade: Divine Grade

[YES] [NO]

I feel a new skill upgrade add to my status, and the ability melds with my true self, and my levels surge upward to [Lv. 27,016], however, my mind is more focused on the thousands of years of memories being imprinted on my mind.

These two Cyclops come from their own Demonic Worlds, similar to the sand worms I fought at the base of this mountain. I even watch it defeat tens of thousands of those beasts on its home world before a visiting noble demon from the Upper Realm conquered its world and made it bow down, forcefully creating a guardian contract for it to work in these mines.

Unlike the mindless sandworms, these two beasts both lived about 3,000 years, and went through training with visiting 1st class demons from the citadel above. They also trained amongst themselves, with the Orcs as sparring partners as well.

They are on various working shifts, measured in decades. Sometimes they patrol the borders like they're doing now, to make sure no rogue Lords break into the central peak. While at other times they work as miners near the highest peak of this mountain, sorting through the newly drained stones, picking out the highest quality 3rd and 2nd Class Ether Stones for the Demons who own this plot.

The Demonic Orc's memories in its later life are very similar, however, its early years are very insightful.

I watch this Orc grow up on a similar mana-based world as the Goblin King...

Its world's technology was rudimentary, and they lived in small villages with local leaders all over the world.

With dungeons swarming about, many cultures would never keep them hidden, nor try to limit others from exploration. This world believed a god gave them these gifts of strength, and a quite peaceful world prospered for millennia.

Orcs are quite family- and tribe-oriented, and look to broker deals rather than fight to the death.

Not many wars broke out during this Orc's lifetime, however, it never traveled the entire world, so it's hard to tell with the small sample available to me.

Its entire world was taken over by a Demon using a throne, and a similar image of spreading darkness like the abyss filled the lands of everything this Orc ever knew within a peaceful mountainous village.

From that day forward, many Demonic Beasts this Orc had never seen before appeared from the endless dark abyss that surrounded him, and his peaceful life was over.

His friends and family were slaughtered by a strange black and purple energy, and every time it tried to fight back with the pure mana control it had, dangerous sparks tore away at his flesh.

He saw many others die such a painful end, and decided to never use mana again, in order to keep on living.

Days of hiding away turned to weeks, and those weeks turned to months and years, until the darkness that seeped through this world drained every drop of mana left on it, and stagnant Demonic Energy was all that remained.

In the process of striking for food, and relying on its pure strength to fend off attacking Demonic Beasts, over the years, trace amounts of demonic energy entered this Orc's body.

Those years turned into decades, and the dark energy seeping into its being started making it stronger.

Eventually, it became strong enough to fend off against every monster that attacked the remains of the village it once called home, and it made an ultimate goal to find the source of this darkness.

Another two decades passed, as this Orc's system began to mutate, adapting to its environment, allowing it to wield demonic energy like mana. The blue text in its status shifted to purple, reminding me of Arie and Luna's status alterations after they spent time training in the abyss.

The monster still had levels, but its strength grew the more monsters it killed and demonic energy it absorbed.

By the time it made it across the world to find the throne, the Lord of this world had already been watching it for many years.

It, and hundreds of other Orcs that managed to survive the long hardships of its plundered world.

These strong warriors who survived were taken off-world, and transplanted into other nearby 3rd and 2nd Class worlds with weaker natives, and forced exile contracts just like the Cyclopes memories play out, leading to thousands of years patrolling and mining this central peak below the citadel.

–

When my eyes open wide again, and I take a deep breath of air, I see three more 2nd Grade worlds floating in the darkness of my mind, and my world token ticks up to [206].Nôv(el)B\\jnn

In addition to this, my Soul Sword craves the Soul Weapons of the fallen Lords I just killed.

As my gaze turns around, I see the green streaks of the aftermath of Ava zipping through the air, and the three shattered Avatars of the other Orcs and Cyclops that were running toward us.

I smirk and look up at the mountain's peak, opening up my barrier again, and walking from corpse to corpse letting my sword devour many more Soul Weapons.

Ava watches from afar, and after five full seconds without my barrier passes, and less than one second is necessary for me to adapt to the atmosphere afterward, she floats down next to me and pulls out the axe from the Goblin King.

"I assume this is why you wanted me to bring this here...?"

Her face still shows shock and awe. Plus, when my barrier was down, I could better feel the excitement, confusion, and even fear of the power she's capable of wielding.

I nod, opening up my barrier again to let my sword devour this Soul Weapon too.

"Yes, my sword has quite the appetite..."

I can even feel it slightly vibrating with excitement, as its waiting patiently for a good fight to activate the new powers its gained for reaching level 2 of its evolution.

A rumbling comes from the distance, as after I released my initial aura, many surrounding zone Orc and Cyclops guardians have run to kill the intruders.

From my new memories, I know that there is a ranking system for these guardians. Some that are closer to the top of this peak even hold more than one world as they are naturally strong, and the Avatar boosts are well deserved.

While it wouldn't be a problem for me to cut them all down given enough time, my only goal is getting to the top of this mountain, and facing the true guardian.

The two massive doors shutting the oval-shaped hole in the sky have already closed a visible amount. My feet begin to glow with air magic, as I'm about to just fly over these new hordes of beasts charging my way, but Ava speaks again while looking down at her status.

"Is this real? Already... I've hit level ten thousand...? I... can Rank Up..."